Elon Musk has rubbished claims that his role in the Trump administration is coming to a premature end, after the billionaire’s unpopularity was seized upon by Democrats to clinch a crucial state supreme court race.
In a post on X, he decried as “fake news” a report by Politico, which said Trump had told confidants he expected Musk to leave as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) within weeks.
Musk was originally expected to lead Doge until the summer of 2026. Last week, the billionaire suggested he could be done with government by the end of May, while Trump on Monday predicted that “at some point Elon’s going to want to go back to his company”.
The White House confirmed that Musk would “depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work . . . is complete”. Shares in Musk’s Tesla, which had earlier reported a huge drop in deliveries, rose sharply on the news of his potential departure and closed up 5.3 per cent.
Over the past few weeks, the world’s wealthiest man poured more than $25mn into a judicial race in Wisconsin, arguing that the “future of civilisation” hinged on electing a conservative to the state’s highest court.
But on Tuesday, Musk’s preferred candidate, Brad Schimel, lost by 10 percentage points in a race that had morphed into a poll on his popularity.
Prominent Trump supporters had harsh words for the billionaire.
Voters across the US were “extremely fired up about Musk” and the cuts made by Doge, said Blake Neff, a co-host of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s podcast. “I can see this, I can see this in places that aren’t even political, that people are all riled up about Elon Musk.”
“Last night was a wake-up call,” Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon told the Financial Times. “Elon was in every ad,” the long-standing Musk critic added. “I think Elon was in the ads more than Trump was”.
Ever since he decided to bankroll Trump’s campaign with more than a quarter of a billion dollars last year, Musk has become the most feared political donor in the US, threatening to use his financial firepower in races of all sizes to cement Republican dominance nationwide.
Musk’s involvement in Wisconsin was not restricted to wiring funds. He revived a scheme used in swing states in last year’s presidential election and offered registered voters $100 to sign a petition, handing out $1mn cheques to some of the signatories in person.
State Democrats, who supported liberal judge Susan Crawford for the court seat, seized upon the spectacle to convince their base that a billionaire who had “probably never set foot in Wisconsin before” was trying to buy their votes in the most expensive judicial race in American history.
Their messaging was enhanced by growing resentment of Musk’s task force — which has cut tens of thousands of government roles, attempted to close agencies, and torn up aid contracts in pursuit of $1tn in savings — among left-leaning voters.
Conservatives in Wisconsin, meanwhile, were less alarmed by Musk’s warnings that a liberal majority on the court would ultimately lead to a redrawing of the state’s electoral map in Democrats’ favour and that the 2026 midterm elections would end up torpedoing the Trump agenda.
“I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will,” a cheese-hat- wearing Musk told a crowd in Green Bay on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the surrounding area — which had voted for the president in November — was one of 10 Trump-supporting counties to endorse Crawford amid record turnout.
Musk appeared to anticipate the negative result, admitting last month that it would be “difficult” to defeat a liberal candidate in an election that tended to elicit more enthusiasm from Democrats.
“I expected to lose, but there is value to losing a piece for a positional gain,” Musk wrote on X on Wednesday.
“Republicans are happy, they are not mad, they are not energised to turn out — that is why you saw Elon talking in such apocalyptic terms,” said one Republican strategist who has advised congressional candidates.
However, the strategist added, the billionaire “is a polarising figure among the Democrats’ base”. Musk “dumps gasoline on Democrats’ energy”.
There are some indications that Schimel’s loss was not driven purely by diehard Democrats turning out. Wisconsinites also voted to enshrine a requirement for voters to show ID — already a state law — into the state’s constitution. The measure is opposed by liberals who claim it will allow for discrimination against older voters and ethnic minorities.
But many Democrats — who also managed to improve their numbers in two special congressional elections in solid-red Florida districts on Tuesday — will see the Wisconsin win as further confirmation that Musk is far less popular than Trump and a Republican Achilles heel.
Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky said: “Not just Democrats, but independents and certainly a sizeable number of Republicans are looking at Elon Musk and saying: ‘Who is this guy?’ Why is he in our lives? Why do we have to put up with him? Why is he in charge of determining whether we’re going to be able to collect our social security checks?’”
The next significant electoral tests will be in New Jersey and Virginia, which choose new governors in November. If Musk turns up in those states, Roginsky said, “I think he will be doing Democrats a massive favour.”
For Trump’s ardent supporters the Wisconsin result may be less about Musk’s toxicity among certain voters than Republicans’ dependence on the president’s brand.
Trump himself only endorsed Schimel 11 days before the vote and did not campaign in person in the state, despite entreaties to do so.
“The political problem on the Republican side of the aisle is how to get our base to vote in off-cycle elections,” vice-president JD Vance wrote on X on Wednesday. “We’ve seen the establishment (finally) accept Donald Trump’s leadership of the Republican Party. Now it’s time to try to actually learn from his political success.”
Conservative influencer Kirk, whose group Turning Point Action campaigned for Schimel in Wisconsin, said: “The Democrats are now going to permanently enjoy this kind of [high-propensity] coalition that they’ve built. We’re still dependent on Trump’s magic.”
Additional reporting by Stefania Palma
